A SPINY TRICORN TRILOBITE

A SPINY TRICORN TRILOBITE

Comura butyncki trilobite

Middle Devonian

Taharajat, Morocco

Size of fossil: 6 cm, in 10 x 8 cm matrix. A well-preserved specimen, with great detail in the eyes. Housed in a custom vitrine.

An elegant example of what is sometimes called a "Sail-spined" Trilobite, due to the species' dramatic row of axial spines, which were an excellent defense against predatory fish. Trilobites are a class of marine arachnomorph arthropods that inhabited the seas during the Paleozoic Era, from the Cambrian through the Permien period. They existed in oceans for over 300 million years, with last of them disappearing during the mass extinction at the end of the Permien period, 250 million years ago —making them one of the most successful species to ever live. This trilobite has the appearance of an alien creature, making it hard to imagine that they once inhabited our planet in multitudes.